You've got to get up pretty early in the morning to win a Fourth of July picnic contest at Thompson Park. And by the way, 7 a.m. might not be quite early enough.

"Next year might have to be 6:30," said Shelley Kunselman, after arriving to find a dozen spots already taken.

Even in Longmont's most tree-filled park, shady spots go fast. In fact, on Friday, every spot in the park seemed to go fast as hundreds paid a visit to the annual Independence Day celebration, making it easily the biggest block party in town.

No surprise. There's the food. The music, featuring the Longmont Symphony and Longmont Youth orchestras. The fact that almost every friend, relative and old classmate in shouting distance seems to have shown up, too. And yes, the cannons that rattle the dogs and set off the car alarms in a two block radius as they rock the 1812 Overture.

World War II veteran Tom Meylor shakes the hand of picnic contest judge Mark Pepin during the annual Fourth of July celebration in Thompson Park on Friday, July 4. (Lewis Geyer / Longmont Times-Call)

Two years ago, the guns had been gone, banished during a bad wildfire season. Last year, artillerist Michael Gallagher had to have a substitute gunner; he'd already booked another Fourth elsewhere. This year?

"He's baa-aack," a woman sing-songed with a grin as Gallagher set off a BOOM in the middle of the National Anthem. Bombs bursting in air, indeed.

Some, like Kunselman, make it out every year. Others come for the first time, often swearing there will be a second. That included Stacy Trembly and her family, playing "Nertz" — a sort of competitive speed solitaire — on a picnic table to one side.

"We're usually out with family out of town," said Trembly, a 21-year resident. "It's really fun. It just seems like the small town stuff that places do, even though we're a big town."

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Granted, most towns don't have a symphony orchestra that can shift from "The Washington Post March" to a "Lord of the Rings" medley on the turn of a dime. Shifting from military anthems to corny conductor jokes — maybe.

"You go up ... and you go down," LSO conductor Robert Olson told the children preparing to take their turns as "guest conductor" as he demonstrated the baton. "And you go up ... and you go down. And they pay me to do this! Can you believe it?"

A decorated table at the annual Fourth of July celebration in Thompson Park on Friday. (Lewis Geyer / Longmont Times-Call)

Those cannon shots, by the way, were a precursor to greater rumbles later. Minutes after the overture ended and the community picnic with it, the skies opened to curtains of rain, not letting up until after 3:30 p.m.

It didn't wash out the Kunselman family, though, whose "Firework Kids" picnic won second place in the contest, the family's third straight year of finishing either second or first. First place this year went to the families of Kelly Haley and Katy Nichols, whose spread included years worth of Independence Day decorations, a quilt Haley and Nichols had made that was spangled with flags and firework bursts, and a barrage of patriotic food including a red-white-and-blue layer cake and a flag-shaped dip.

"We each bring one thing and it adds up," Haley said.

Kind of like the party itself, really.

"Longmont is an incredible area," said Shar Lee, watching the festivities from a dome tent in the park to keep the heat down. "Here you are, surrounded by trees and all this beautiful music — how could it get any better?"

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